Saint Louis Zoo Participatory Asset Mapping VISTA 1

St. Louis County residents have established a general sense of ownership and pride over the Saint Louis Zoo due to these circumstances. The Zoo seeks to leverage their reputation as "the Zoo of the people" and extend north St. Louis County residents' ownership and pride to the Zoo's educational programming offered at the Zoo's new North County Campus facility. The Saint Louis Zoo purchased this new Campus in 2018, which is located on 450 acres in the Spanish Lake region of north St. Louis County—23 miles from Saint Louis Zoo's main campus in the City. North St. Louis County residents' proximity to the North County Campus affords these residents an opportunity to engage in the types of educational programming that they could not access at the main Zoo campus due to their distance from it and the limited space the main campus provides. Their close proximity to the Zoo's North County Campus makes north St. Louis County residents the perfect candidates to co-design educational programming with the Zoo to ensure mutually beneficial impact on their community.

Member Duties: The Participatory Asset Mapping VISTA member will build the capacity of north Saint Louis County by assisting Saint Louis Zoo in with outreach, coordination, and relationship building to support the design of asset-based educational programming in north Saint Louis County, Missouri. The Zoo will be working extensively in the Spanish Lake region of north Saint Louis County, an area where 27.6% of the residents live with income below the poverty level. The Zoo's targeted educational design will help alleviate poverty in this region. As a result of the VISTA member's service, the Saint Louis Zoo will design effective and valuable educational programming that builds upon the strengths and assets of north Saint Louis County. This asset-based educational programming will aim to leverage the expertise of Zoo educators to foster environmentally sustainable livelihoods while alleviating poverty in ways that are culturally and practically relevant to north Saint Louis County residents.